Hear Griffin Brown’s infectiously idiosyncratic synth-pop single, “nil”

On May 8, experimental electronic artist Griffin Brown will release new album Begriffen, via Spread Way Out/Better Company Records. Following a handful of previous singles, including “DRAW” and “Two Wrongs,” today, he’s shared a new track from the album, “nil,” which is a brief but infectious gem. Melodic, immersive and warm in spite of—or perhaps because of—its idiosyncrasies, it’s reminiscent of earlier Animal Collective through a synth-pop filter. Hear it below.

Brown said about the track in a statement: “This is one of the last songs I wrote for the album. Side 2 needed a firm restart, so I took the harmony from the preceding track and nearly tripled the BPM. I had a poem that had recently been commissioned lying around, and the words almost automatically fit when I overlaid them on the music. It often feels like we live in—and perpetuate—a kind of inverted paradise, a bright, bountiful sheen that, if you inspect it, is just gussied up decay and neglect. That’s an undercurrent in the poem, and I think a lot of the album is interested in that, too.”

Griffin Brown Begriffen tracklist:

1. Six-8
2. Figure
3. 40 Red Blue 2
4. 11385
5. I.iv
6. nil
7. GT3
8. Two Wrongs
9. Figure (Ground)
10. Ten
11. DRAW